History Nerds Thread

[Is Everyone Gone]

If any of you are history buffs, let's talk about our favorite history events and figures!

I'll start: I'm a huge Tudor history buff, and I love the fact that Elizabeth wore a ring that had a portrait of her mother inside. There is obviously a strong facial resemblance between mother and daughter:

[Blergh]

OK, here's one:

Queen Victoria was one of the first famous people to have had a motion picture made of her moving in 1896- when her granddaughter the Empress Alexandra of Russia and her grandson-in-law Czar Nicholas II of Russia came to visit- the three of them were filmed at Balmoral with Vic riding a carriage holding a dog and the four of them were followed by her one of her fave servants Abdul Karim (AKA the Munshi).

What's more Vic became somewhat of a film buff in her twilight years and it's said that one of her fave movies was a comedy about four girls in a boarding school having a pillow fight called . . .The Pillow Fight (1898).

[tearknee]

Idi Amin versus Nixon - Satan trolling Beeeluzbub :)

"I should like to congratulate you for the [Nobel Peace Prize] nomination. However, I have reason to believe the organization that has nominated you merely wishes you to hear of the nomination so that you can recover from the Watergate affair. My reason for holding this view is that it is very discouraging for real peacemakers in the world to hear of your nomination...I am led to the conclusion that your nominators were not serious in their choice."

-- Ugandan President Idi Amin, in a message sent to the White House for President Richard Nixon after Nixon received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, September 1973.

 

On July 4, 1973, Amin had also sent an Independence Day message to President Nixon where he wished him a "speedy recovery from the Watergate Affair." That led to the United States deciding not to send a new ambassador to Uganda. The previous ambassador had been recalled because of a string of mocking messages that Idi Amin sent to Nixon over American involvement in Vietnam.

 

 

Edited January 4 by tearknee

[Is Everyone Gone]

10 hours ago, Blergh said:

OK, here's one:

Queen Victoria was one of the first famous people to have had a motion picture made of her moving in 1896- when her granddaughter the Empress Alexandra of Russia and her grandson-in-law Czar Nicholas II of Russia came to visit- the three of them were filmed at Balmoral with Vic riding a carriage holding a dog and the four of them were followed by her one of her fave servants Abdul Karim (AKA the Munshi).

What's more Vic became somewhat of a film buff in her twilight years and it's said that one of her fave movies was a comedy about four girls in a boarding school having a pillow fight called . . .The Pillow Fight (1898).

That's great.

Victoria was one of those monarchs whose personality was really different from "Victorian." She wasn't prudish for one. She was actually quite the horndog. It was Albert who was more "Victorian." He actually was quite prudish. Vic hated being pregnant because Albert would not have, uh, relations with her while pregnant. She also was devastated when he decided to curtail their family after 8 children. No more sex.

[Blergh]

3 minutes ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

That's great.

Victoria was one of those monarchs whose personality was really different from "Victorian." She wasn't prudish for one. She was actually quite the horndog. It was Albert who was more "Victorian." He actually was quite prudish. Vic hated being pregnant because Albert would not have, uh, relations with her while pregnant. She also was devastated when he decided to curtail their family after 8 children. No more sex.

Thanks. I hate to tell you this but Vic and Al had had NINE children before the docs told her no more- to which she supposedly replied 'Can't I have any more fun in bed?'

Late in her reign, one of her generals was recounting a battle with Ashanti warriors when he got caught up in the moment from discussing how the warriors ran over a hill to meet the British troops like ants over a hill then (evidently forgetting the formal setting of Vic's home) likened their movements to something resembling intercourse (I've cleaned it up somewhat).

This caused virtually the entire royal household to gasp/clear their throats in shock with one exception. Yep, the 70-something , 5 foot zip  rotund Vic was hysterically laughing at that sexual reference!

[Is Everyone Gone]

3 hours ago, Blergh said:

Thanks. I hate to tell you this but Vic and Al had had NINE children before the docs told her no more- to which she supposedly replied 'Can't I have any more fun in bed?'

Late in her reign, one of her generals was recounting a battle with Ashanti warriors when he got caught up in the moment from discussing how the warriors ran over a hill to meet the British troops like ants over a hill then (evidently forgetting the formal setting of Vic's home) likened their movements to something resembling intercourse (I've cleaned it up somewhat).

This caused virtually the entire royal household to gasp/clear their throats in shock with one exception. Yep, the 70-something , 5 foot zip  rotund Vic was hysterically laughing at that sexual reference!

That's hilarious.

Another thing about Vic was for someone who believed in such traditional gender roles she and Albert switched gender roles.

She was not maternal and actively disliked her kids. Albert was more of the "mother" in that relationship. He once chided her for her crappy attitude towards their kids.

Another one of my Roman Empires was how inbred Cleopatra's family was.

With that level of inbreeding, I doubt Cleopatra VII would have looked like Liz Taylor.

[Blergh]

6 minutes ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

That's hilarious.

Another thing about Vic was for someone who believed in such traditional gender roles she and Albert switched gender roles.

She was not maternal and actively disliked her kids. Albert was more of the "mother" in that relationship. He once chided her for her crappy attitude towards their kids.

Another one of my Roman Empires was how inbred Cleopatra's family was.

With that level of inbreeding, I doubt Cleopatra VII would have looked like Liz Taylor.

Yeah, there's some evidence that Vic (who had the power to invite or BAR Al from her bedchamber at any time) might have gone through numerous loathed childbirths after the de rigeur male heirs and spares (though technically ANY of her marital daughters succeeded her had she had no surviving sons or grandsons) was due to Vic wanting to give Al some more purpose in life via being a parent of a larger family. BTW, soon after the birth of her 2nd son (and 4th child) there was a song that made the British pub and music hall rounds called 'We'll Do It No More' which had Vic plea with Al to leave her be so as not to drain the national budget (which had been imperiled by her grandfather George III's 15 children). It should be noted that, regardless of how tenaciously heiresses to thrones would fight for their rights and the respect of their male ministers, they usually sought to have an unquestioned male heir either by birth or adopting their nearest younger male relative to help give some extra 'legitimacy' to their rule. Speaking of births, though, it should be noted that when chloroform first was used, there was an outcry by the clergy to have it used for women bearing children citing Eve's fall,etc. However, Vic happily used it for her 8th and 9th children and wasn't above using her status as Supreme Governor of the Church of England to greenlight its use for other laboring mothers (and putting a sock in the dissers' protests).

FWIW, once Vic said 'after the 7th granddaughter and 14th grandchild,  it becomes a very uninteresting thing- for it seems to me to go on  like the rabbits in Windsor Park'- and she'd have a LOT more than that!

As to Cleopatra? You're probably right but where would they have found a female performer willing to look like a female version of the last Spanish Hapsburg Charles II? BTW, it seems Cleopatra DID share in having red hair and a large nose with him but at least she didn't have a tongue too big for his mouth,etc.

[Is Everyone Gone]

16 hours ago, tearknee said:

Idi Amin versus Nixon - Satan trolling Beeeluzbub :)

"I should like to congratulate you for the [Nobel Peace Prize] nomination. However, I have reason to believe the organization that has nominated you merely wishes you to hear of the nomination so that you can recover from the Watergate affair. My reason for holding this view is that it is very discouraging for real peacemakers in the world to hear of your nomination...I am led to the conclusion that your nominators were not serious in their choice."

-- Ugandan President Idi Amin, in a message sent to the White House for President Richard Nixon after Nixon received a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, September 1973.

 

On July 4, 1973, Amin had also sent an Independence Day message to President Nixon where he wished him a "speedy recovery from the Watergate Affair." That led to the United States deciding not to send a new ambassador to Uganda. The previous ambassador had been recalled because of a string of mocking messages that Idi Amin sent to Nixon over American involvement in Vietnam.

 

 

that's incredible.

Richard Nixon is actually a favorite of mine. Not as a person, but I do think he was the most INTERESTING presidency. He was so obviously intelligent, but also deeply insecure and awkward. People said he was so socially awkward around people it was painful.

You can hear this awkwardness in a phone call with his chief of staff Bob Haldeman:

 

[tearknee]

A future president combining Nixon's skills with Trump's ability to rouse a rabble = very bad situation

[Is Everyone Gone]

On 1/4/2025 at 1:33 PM, Blergh said:

As to Cleopatra? You're probably right but where would they have found a female performer willing to look like a female version of the last Spanish Hapsburg Charles II? BTW, it seems Cleopatra DID share in having red hair and a large nose with him but at least she didn't have a tongue too big for his mouth,etc.

Another historical figure that was so inbred as to be actually sickly was King Tut. His father and mother seems to have been brother and sister. Tut married his half-sister. After Tut's death, his wife married her grandfather. Yikes.

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Another historical figure that was so inbred as to be actually sickly was King Tut. His father and mother seems to have been brother and sister. Tut married his half-sister. After Tut's death, his wife married her grandfather. Yikes.

Is that why he died so young?  

[Lugal]

On 1/5/2025 at 12:02 PM, Is Everyone Gone said:

Another historical figure that was so inbred as to be actually sickly was King Tut. His father and mother seems to have been brother and sister. Tut married his half-sister. After Tut's death, his wife married her grandfather. Yikes.

Despite his physical problems, Egyptologists seem to think Tut was still pretty physically active and may have even participated in military campaigns.

After his death, his wife, Ankhesenamun, was very likely the queen mentioned in the Daḫamunzu Affair which was a fascinating story.  A queen of Egypt (that Hittite sources reference as Daḫamunzu, which is their rendering of an Egyptian title so the true identity of the specific queen is somewhat in doubt) wrote a letter to the Hittite King demanding one of his sons to marry her and become king of Egypt.  The Hittite King, Suppiluliuma, was suspicious and after a series of tense letters, he did dispatch his son Zannanza to Egypt, but he was killed on the way.  Ankhesenamun then married Ay who was her grandfather.  However, the Hittite king blamed the Egyptians for the murder which led to war between the two kingdoms.

On 1/5/2025 at 1:42 PM, PRgal said:

Is that why he died so young?  

They think that was from complications of a broken leg and/or malaria.

[Is Everyone Gone]

14 minutes ago, Lugal said:

Despite his physical problems, Egyptologists seem to think Tut was still pretty physically active and may have even participated in military campaigns.

After his death, his wife, Ankhesenamun, was very likely the queen mentioned in the Daḫamunzu Affair which was a fascinating story.  A queen of Egypt (that Hittite sources reference as Daḫamunzu, which is their rendering of an Egyptian title so the true identity of the specific queen is somewhat in doubt) wrote a letter to the Hittite King demanding one of his sons to marry her and become king of Egypt.  The Hittite King, Suppiluliuma, was suspicious and after a series of tense letters, he did dispatch his son Zannanza to Egypt, but he was killed on the way.  Ankhesenamun then married Ay who was her grandfather.  However, the Hittite king blamed the Egyptians for the murder which led to war between the two kingdoms.

I had always read that the queen in question was Nefertiti ...

[PRgal]

21 minutes ago, Lugal said:

 

They think that was from complications of a broken leg and/or malaria.

I didn't think you could get an infection from a broken leg.  Unless there was clotting or something.  

[tearknee]

12 minutes ago, PRgal said:

I didn't think you could get an infection from a broken leg.  Unless there was clotting or something.  

You could die from a broken bone in antiquity.

 

*points to modern day anti-vaccination movement*

 

That is how tragic things can be when people are used to the way things are and forget how they used to be.

[fastiller]

For you history buffs, there's a great podcast called Betwixt The Sheets, hosted by Kate Lister.  She is (was?) a History Professor at Leeds Trinity University.  
Since y'all have mentioned her, here's the episiode about Cleopatra and a bonus about Nefertiti.

 

One of my favourite women in history is Gráinne Ní Mháille, 16th Century pirate Queen.  Two quick tales about her:

1. She came ashore on the other side of Ireland from where she lived.  She was from Mayo (on the West Coast), this happened in Howth (North of Dublin on the East) and asked the local High King for food. He refused to provide any.  As she was on her way back to her ship, she came upon a young boy.  The boy turned out to be the High King's grandson.  She took (abducted? po-TAY-to/po-TAH-to) the boy with her and made the grandfather cross the country to get him back.  As a result, there's always an empty setting on the table at Howth Castle.  (Some of the precise details of this are lost to history, but the above is fairly near accurate.)

2. She met with Queen Elizabeth.  Gráinne got her son & her brother released from prison during this visit & struck an agreement as to whether the Queen's local representative in Mayo was allowed to arrest any of her family.
Elizabeth spoke no Irish and Gráinne spoke no English, so they conversed in Latin.  Below is an illustration of that meeting.

Edited January 9 by fastiller
clarity

[Lugal]

19 minutes ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

I had always read that the queen in question was Nefertiti ...

There's a lot we really don't know about the end of the 18th Dynasty.  It fascinates me.  As for Daḫamunzu, she could be either one, as the Hittite records mention she was the wife of Nipḫururia which could be the throne names of either Akhenaten or Tutankhamun.  I even read it could have been Meritaten, Ankhesenamun's sister and possible wife of the mysterious Smenkhkare.  And there's also identity of Nefernefruaten/Nefertiti which seems to be a whole other thing.

24 minutes ago, PRgal said:

I didn't think you could get an infection from a broken leg.  Unless there was clotting or something.  

It was a compound fracture and the skin was broken.

[Notabug]

49 minutes ago, PRgal said:

I didn't think you could get an infection from a broken leg.  Unless there was clotting or something.  

If it was a compound fracture, where the broken bone came through the skin, it would almost inevitably result in an infection, which, in those days, would've very likely been fatal.  Or, perhaps, a piece of fatty tissue from the bone marrow cavity broke off and went to his lungs, a fat embolism, also likely to be fatal.  Or, being immobile after breaking the leg, clots formed in the blood vessels in his leg and travelled to the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism.

Lots of ways to die from an inadequately treated fracture.

[Is Everyone Gone]

48 minutes ago, Lugal said:

There's a lot we really don't know about the end of the 18th Dynasty.  It fascinates me.  As for Daḫamunzu, she could be either one, as the Hittite records mention she was the wife of Nipḫururia which could be the throne names of either Akhenaten or Tutankhamun.  I even read it could have been Meritaten, Ankhesenamun's sister and possible wife of the mysterious Smenkhkare.  And there's also identity of Nefernefruaten/Nefertiti which seems to be a whole other thing.

Yeah it's a fascinating period. And there's this theory that Akhenaten's survivors and adherents became what we now know as Jews.

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, Notabug said:

If it was a compound fracture, where the broken bone came through the skin, it would almost inevitably result in an infection, which, in those days, would've very likely been fatal.  Or, perhaps, a piece of fatty tissue from the bone marrow cavity broke off and went to his lungs, a fat embolism, also likely to be fatal.  Or, being immobile after breaking the leg, clots formed in the blood vessels in his leg and travelled to the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism.

Lots of ways to die from an inadequately treated fracture.

Holy $h!t!!!  I'm glad we have the medical knowledge we have today.  That kid would probably have had all the scans he needed and proper treatment within 24 hours of the accident.

[tearknee]

Insulin wasn't discovered until the 1920s

Yeah, I'm looking at *you*, people in modern-day written historical fiction that have diabetes and haven't died from it fairly quickly!

[PRgal]

9 minutes ago, tearknee said:

Insulin wasn't discovered until the 1920s

Yeah, I'm looking at *you*, people in modern-day written historical fiction that have diabetes and haven't died from it fairly quickly!

And discovered in my hometown!!!  At a hospital that I support.  I was actually surprised it wasn't at the children's hospital across the street since the first individual to benefit from it was a 12 year old boy.

[Blergh]

As long as we're doing medical breakthroughs, let's not overlook the vaccine that started it all for smallpox. Edward Jenner (1749-1823) was an English physician who had heard  the old wives' tale that folks who had contracted cowpox from having milked cows somehow were protected from them on from contracting the much more virulent and frequently fatal smallpox. To test this theory, he took material from the cowpox postule of the milkmaid (a Sarah or Lucy Nelmes) and injected it directly into the skin of James Phipps - his own gardener's eight-year-old son! Yes, young Master Phipps soon developed cowpox  after a week but quickly recovered. Then, Dr. Jenner injected material from a smallpox postule into Master Phipp's skin six weeks later but, thankfully, he did NOT develop smallpox which proved to Dr. Jenner (and the world) that the old wives' tale of catching cowpox giving a person immunity to smallpox to be medically true.  Although one must consider how much Dr. Jenner had risked Master Phipp's very life and wonder if the boy's father Mr. Phipps's consent  for these experiments on his son would have been so readily granted had  Mr. Phipps been totally dependent on Dr. Jenner for the means to support his family, it DID  work out. Whether to acknowledge the boy's contribution to medical science and/or out of possible guilt over having risked the boy's life to test his theory, Dr. Jennings DID give the adult James Phipps (1788-1853) free lease on a cottage for him to shelter his own wife and two children.

BTW, 'vaccine' comes from the Latin for 'of cowpox' with 'vaca' meaning cow!

[Is Everyone Gone]

Another medical breakthrough was Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis hypothesized that simply washing your hands can decrease infection rates. He implemented that idea at a hospital and mortality rates for patients went down. But his ideas were not accepted by the medical community and he ended up in a mental institution.

Wild stuff.

[PRgal]

I remember reading about cleaning wounds to prevent infection in a supplementary reading comprehension workbook in elementary school.  I don't remember the doctor's name, but some kid was injured by farm equipment and was told that his limb would need to be amputated.  But the doctor cleaned it and the kid eventually healed.  

[Blergh]

Virtually from the Fall of the Roman Empire onward, there were numerous properties and territories controlled by the Catholic Church all over Western Europe that dotted the landscape. However, essentially in the upper shin of the Italian boot, there existed a wide band known as the Papal States that were directly ruled by the Popes themselves from Rome via their main palace compound known as the Vatican (and it needs to be said despite being ruled by the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church wasn't above going to war with other neighboring territories down the centuries) . Meanwhile other territories in the Italian boot ranged from numerous independent city-states (which the tiny Republic ofmSan Marino has wound up being the last survivor) to territories within controlled by empires in other parts of Europe (e.g. what's now Germany, Austria, France and Spain).

However by the 19th century, there was an increasingly strong momentum of folks from all parts of the Italian peninsula (as well as neighboring islands including Sardinia and Sicily) that wanted to form a united nation of folks who spoke the basic Italian language (albeit with many dialects and variations) and under the leadership of the Kingdom of Sardinia this would become a reality- granted not without wars and bloodshed involved.  One thing that virtually everyone who wanted the whole peninsula united under a single nation DID agree upon was that they wanted the onetime Imperial namesake capital of Rome as their own capital city.

Guess who still controlled Rome and the Papal States during that time? That's right the Popes- and they weren't about to give up the their own capital city much less its surrounding territories.

However, by 1870, Rome did indeed get captured by the newer Kingdom of Italy and made  it its capital city. The ruling Pope Pius IX refused to recognize Italy's right to the govern the Papal States much less  the city of Rome being the capital of the newer nation and proclaimed himself the 'prisoner of the Vatican'- and all his successors would do the same for the next 59 years.

Flash forward to the 1920's, while the Kingdom of Italy still existed, by that point, the king was merely a figurehead head of state while the actual ruler of Italy was none other than Benito Mussolini! Well, Mussolini was by no means a devout Catholic but he didn't like the idea of someone openly protesting the existence of his nation (much less his own rule) within his territories. .who could potentially rally other Catholics  within and from all over Western Europe to do the same so he and his representatives decided to approach the current pope (Pius XI) and, essentially, agreed that not only would the Kingdom of Italy itself but would encourage all other nations to recognize the Pope as the sole temporal ruler of a brand new territory consisting of the Vatican palace complex and grounds that would be known  the completely independent nation of Vatican City. In exchange, the Pope [and his successors] would recognize the Kingdom of Italy's right to exist AND be governed by the city of Rome( outside the Vatican itself) and this would be concluded by the Lateran Treaty in 1929! Yep, so this is how the world's smallest independent nation of 0.19 square miles/0.49 square kilometers came to be!

[Is Everyone Gone]

11 hours ago, Blergh said:

Flash forward to the 1920's, while the Kingdom of Italy still existed, by that point, the king was merely a figurehead head of state while the actual ruler of Italy was none other than Benito Mussolini! Well, Mussolini was by no means a devout Catholic but he didn't like the idea of someone openly protesting the existence of his nation (much less his own rule) within his territories. .who could potentially rally other Catholics  within and from all over Western Europe to do the same so he and his representatives decided to approach the current pope (Pius XI) and, essentially, agreed that not only would the Kingdom of Italy itself but would encourage all other nations to recognize the Pope as the sole temporal ruler of a brand new territory consisting of the Vatican palace complex and grounds that would be known  the completely independent nation of Vatican City. In exchange, the Pope [and his successors] would recognize the Kingdom of Italy's right to exist AND be governed by the city of Rome( outside the Vatican itself) and this would be concluded by the Lateran Treaty in 1929! Yep, so this is how the world's smallest independent nation of 0.19 square miles/0.49 square kilometers came to be!

Went to Vatican city a few summers ago. Really a beautiful place with the bridge and the square. 

I recently went down a rabbit hole about Leonardo da Vinci's mother. Turns out people think she was a slave. Apparently "Caterina" was a common name for slaves.

Unlike most illegitimate children of the time, seems as if Leonardo had contact with his mother, who even lived with him for a time in Milan.

[Blergh]

Yes, after going online and buying a 'skip the line' pass, I wound up having to wait in TWO separate lines before I finally got into the Vatican Museums which, with it's Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Medieval. ..and Palmyran artifacts was quite fascinating to me but, I have to confess my fave part of that tour was seeing all those fantastically detailed. .and truly beautiful  Renaissance MAPS of so many cities and regions. While I found the main Basilica a bit too opulent and overwhelming for my personal taste, I had to admit I was fascinated by the Crypt of St. Peter under the Main Altar which seemed to hearken back to Byzantine times and I liked climbing to the top of St. Peter's Dome to get a fantastic view of the tiny gardens and fountain behind the tourist route within the Vatican grounds- to say nothing of the many surrounding Roman city landmarks!

As for Da Vinci?  Yes, he was quite amazing in his own right but it appears that his father went out of his way to have FREED poor Caterina (who may have been from a Circissian from the Near East) right before she gave birth. Evidently, he was worried about getting punished for having gotten another person's slave in the family way! However, even though the elder Da Vinci wound up having the main custody of Leonardo from infancy onward to give his son a chance, he DID help provide Caterina with a dowry so she could marry someone else (and, as you said Caterina stayed in contact with their son).

Of course, this is as good a place as any to mention that a dowry could be invested by a woman's husband and in-laws and they could reap the benefits of any interest. However, if the woman's husband, died before her, the principle of the dowry was supposed to revert to her in her own right and that would be the end of the in-laws' obligation to support her. Now, if the husband died young- especially without having sired a living son, this would mean that the widow would somehow have to make the dowry stretch the rest of her existing hand-to-mouth often as a de facto unpaid servant in her in-laws' place. However, if the husband died after X number of decades and left behind at least one living adult son, this often meant the widow would herself have become the family matriarch and mother of the new head of the family with dower rights to live in the marital home until her own death AND would use the dowry as her own 'mad money' in addition to being  comfortably provided for by her progeny.

 

[Ancaster]

On 1/9/2025 at 12:02 PM, PRgal said:

Holy $h!t!!!  I'm glad we have the medical knowledge we have today.  That kid would probably have had all the scans he needed and proper treatment within 24 hours of the accident.

Depends where "that kid" lives today.

[tearknee]

UFO sculpture in the park of the Medzi Jarkami panel houses housing estate, made in the 1970s

Podunajské Biskupice part of Bratislava, Slovak Socialist Republic of Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Sculptor Juraj Hovorka.

 

Just opposite to the now infamous "Pentagon" (because of the look) panel blocks housing estate.

 

The "Pentagon" was originally monthly-paid workers' quarter for some local socialist CSR industries, complete with a small restaurant and, in the' 80s, a "VHS movie theater", but later, after fall of socialism on 17.11.1989, was slowly sold to individual people and soon became an infamous nest of drug dealers and junkies, with the park in front of "Pentagon" full of people using drugs. 
The architectural disposition of Pentagon with long, joined corridors across the multiple multi-story panel buildings helped the drug dealers get lost in the complex and drugs were hidden and passed around through energy distribution shafts as well.

There were several risks for explosions in the complex from the '90s on as well when drugged people fell asleep with natural gas on and the flame burning out for various reasons. 

It was one of the cheapest places to buy a apartment in Bratislava into the mid 2010s, when a 2.5-3-room flat "in the worst Pentagon part" cost 16-20.000€ while in the rest of Bratislava 70-200.000+€, based on the locality.

 

Between the 1990s and the mid 2010s, the police kind of didn't mind the accumulation of people with drug problems there and dealers and it was "convenient" for them to have these people in one place where they just came for them with police cars if they caused some drug-related problem. 


It also caused a daily problem for low(est) income people of Bratislava who had nothing to do with drugs but couldn't afford anything else. It was also a risky place for kids and generally anyone as drugs were consumed and injected in the nearby park, drug dealers operating and searching for new "clients" and used needles all around the place and the socialist era lighting around the park and closer to Pentagon not working during the night and before the advent of magnetic & chip locks in 2010s, locks broken and unauthorized people getting in and out of the complex as they pleased or drug using in staircases and elevators of the Pentagon complex.

Since the mid 2010s, more and more drug dealers and users have been evicted as they didn't manage to pay the rent/utilities and ended up in jail and even the prices in Pentagon rose from 60k € up per flat.

At one point, Bratislava and regional police even set up a police caravan close to the building, to operate and have a police team of at least few policemen nearby all the time.

 

 

[tearknee]

By the way, one thing you never did was tell the military police at Checkpoint Bravo that you saw anything interesting enroute...

 

Edited 21 hours ago by tearknee

[peacheslatour]

On 1/3/2025 at 3:57 PM, Is Everyone Gone said:

If any of you are history buffs, let's talk about our favorite history events and figures!

I'll start: I'm a huge Tudor history buff, and I love the fact that Elizabeth wore a ring that had a portrait of her mother inside. There is obviously a strong facial resemblance between mother and daughter:

I'm also a huge fan of Liz I and the French Revolution is another of my favorite topics. 

[AgathaC]

My degree is in history and I read history books for fun, so I’d classify myself as a history nerd. Can’t say I’m an expert in a particular area, as my interests are pretty varied. If it’s history, I’m interested.

My paternal grandparents were major Anglophiles, who went to England probably 20 times over the years, so British history has always been fascinating to me. I used to have the line of monarchs memorized.

As a teen (13 or 14), I first heard the story of Tsar Nicholas II and the mystery (at that time) of what happened to the family and became completely obsessed. Still have my book collection and my mock-Faberge figures.

WWII. Not the battles. The impact on civilians. The resistance movements. And the study of how and why Hitler came to power. I’ve been fascinated with that since high school.

[fastiller]

27 minutes ago, AgathaC said:

My paternal grandparents were major Anglophiles, who went to England probably 20 times over the years, so British history has always been fascinating to me. I used to have the line of monarchs memorized.

These have to be updated for Chuck the Third.

Edited 16 hours ago by fastiller
subject/verb agreement is important, y'all!!!!